


The Voiceless

by mukkiebee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BAMF!Lance, Lance Runs Away, Multi, because lance runs away, becomes completely bamf, but they break up, established klance, eventual relationship but that's unknown rn, in the first chapter at least, tw: verbal abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-01 03:29:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12147681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mukkiebee/pseuds/mukkiebee
Summary: So I have a prompt? Its klangst, hope you don’t mind! anyways, lance and Keith have a bad fight, ending up with Keith saying something to lance that just REALLY gets to him. Langst and he leaves. Just leaves. He packs his stuff and leaves in either blue or some other way. Thus ensures klangst however you want it. They search for him and you choose whether they find him immediately or later on then klance! He leaves a note, “I was only just a replacement.” or something like that. Its okay, if no





	1. Prologue

The day hadn’t been good for Lance to start with – he’d overslept for the first time in a week, he didn’t get to eat breakfast because of it, and he must’ve been coming down with a cold or something because he’s had a nasal headache all day. So when he went to go see Keith while he was training, he’d hoped that the boy would be able to see how upset Lance already was, and snuggle up to talk about Earth or something to make him feel better.

“Keith?” Lance called as he walked into the training deck, looking around for him, finding him battling the Gladiator again. “Can you come cuddle?” He asked, not expecting anything but a kind ‘sure, give me a tick, babe.’ What ensued next was the biggest fight they’d had to date.

“No, Lance, I need to train. You need to, too. Zarkon won’t wait for us to be ready to battle him,” Keith said in between blocking and attacking the robot.

“But Keith,” Lance whined, rubbing his eyes. “I’ll train tomorrow, okay? But right now I’d like some cud-“

“No, Lance,” Keith snapped, turning to the Blue Paladin after calling off the training exercise. Minor progress, Lance thought to himself. “We need to train, all you do is sleep in, and expect everyone to kiss the ground you walk on. It needs to stop, because sooner or later you’re going to get hurt because of your carelessness. The war isn’t over; therefore, we need to keep battling until we defeat the Galran Empire, and save the universe. But you can’t seem to wrap your head around that, can you? All you do is make sure you get your beauty sleep,” Lance made an affronted noise, he’d been doing great at waking up until today, “flirt with aliens,” he hadn’t done that since Keith and he got together, “and slack off. It makes me wonder if you really have what it takes to be a Paladin for Voltron.” Keith knew the moment the words left his mouth that he would regret them. That he already regretted them before they finished being spoken. Keith knew in that moment that he had messed up, all the progress they had made with Lance’s insecurities came crashing down.

Lance froze, staring at Keith with wide eyes. Then he shut down on himself, hunching his shoulders. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t trust his voice to speak. Instead, he turned on his heel and walked out of the training deck, ignoring Keith’s calls to come back. When he passed the kitchen to get to his room, he didn’t stop in to say hi to Hunk, he ignored Shiro as he walked by, and even ignored Pidge as they worked on something in the hallway outside of the rooms. He was glad that he hadn’t passed by Coran or Allura, he didn’t know if he’d be able to hold himself together in front of Coran, and Allura didn’t like how he flirted with her, so he didn’t want to see her either. He finally walked into his room, locked the door, and then broke down.

Lance thought he’d been doing good – great even. He’d been waking up in the morning on time most days – occasionally he’d slip up and not get breakfast, but he’d been working on it, he stopped flirting with the female aliens they came across, feeling no need as he was in a relationship with Keith already, and he’d only been joking around when they were relaxing or eating. Apparently, Keith didn’t think he was doing as good as Lance thought he was. Until that moment, Lance’s insecurities hadn’t been bothering him for a few weeks, but Keith poked each of them as he got yelled at by him. He knew it was likely just stress causing Keith to lash out at him, and it wasn’t even Keith’s fault, Lance was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Logically, he knew that, but still, the weight of the words that Keith spoke were heavy, and this time, Lance couldn’t take it.

Keith was right, anyway. He wasn’t cut out to be the Blue Paladin, he was just a boy from Cuba who missed his mamá. He was probably just holding the place of the real Blue Paladin until he or she could claim their spot in Voltron. He swallowed thickly as his insecurities once again consumed him. He didn’t hear the banging on his door, or his name being called by Keith, or the apologies flying out of his mouth as he stood on the other side of his door. The only thing Lance was aware of, was that he needed to get out. Distantly, he heard Blue’s unsettled purrs, but he ignored it. He needed to make room for the real Blue Paladin. So, he was leaving.


	2. Replaceable

Lance made sure he did it in the middle of the night. He didn’t want to risk anyone finding him and attempting to convince him to stay. They were close to finding Matt, that means, they were close to finding the real Blue Paladin. At least, that’s what Lance told himself. He wasn’t sure if Matt was indeed the real Blue Paladin, but he had a bad feeling he was. He didn’t know if it was because of his insecurities, or if it was something else. He left a note, short and straight to the point.

_I’m replaceable. -L_

 

Lance didn’t think he needed to add anything else to the note.

Lance had packed a small duffle bag of the very few things he owned in space, including rocks he had found from various planets. He didn’t know what he was going to do once he left Voltron, but he thought he could maybe go home. If he wasn’t needed in Voltron, then he wasn’t needed for anything else in space, was he? He didn’t think so. He took one of the pods, like one that Allura and Keith had taken when they both thought that Galra was tracking Voltron through them.

Lance climbed into the pod, and quietly drove it out of the Castle of Lions. He looked back once, but after he turned around, he knew there was no going back. He wanted to take Blue with him, but he felt it was unfair that just because he wasn’t going to be in Voltron, that they shouldn’t be able to form Voltron. There were many people who needed Voltron to save their lives. He knew there was a possibility of him being wrong – of him being the true Blue Paladin, but his doubts and Keith’s words made him think otherwise, and he supposed only time would tell before someone came looking for him – if they came looking for him.

Lance threw his small bag of belongings into the pod, before hopping in himself. He wondered what would happen if he returned to Earth – what would Iverson do? What had the Garrison told his family when he left? That he was just a run away? Or that he had died? He started the pod, and left the Castle of Lions behind him, wondering if he would be missed. Hopefully.

The next morning, Keith woke up slowly. He wondered if Lance would talk to him today. Allow him to apologize. It wouldn’t make what he said right, but it would show that he regretted them. He knew no matter what he did, he had ruined Lance’s progress yesterday, he just hoped that he could make it in time to help bring him back up to where he was before Keith had exploded on him. So, Keith walked back to Lance’s room – before mostly anyone else was awake. He knocked a few times, then he banged on the door hard. No answer. “Lance,” he called, worry filling his body. Was he okay? He forcibly opened the door, and looked at the neatly made bed, at how empty of the little trinkets that Lance had collected on their journey. His eyes were drawn to a note that lay on the bed. He picked it up, his eyes widening. “Shiro! Pidge! Hunk! Allura! Coran!” He yelled, running out of the room. “Meeting right now!” he shouted as he headed towards the bridge.

One by one the others walked into the room, looking confused. Hunk was the first to speak, “Why didn’t you call Lance?”

“He’s probably sleeping in again,” Pidge commented, “I know he hadn’t been feeling yesterday,” that sentence caused a sharp pain to pierce his heart. Lance hadn’t been slacking off. Of course, he knew that, it was different knowing it though, then hearing someone else confirm it.

“Because he’s what this is about,” Keith took a deep breath, “He’s missing.”

“He’s _what_? Is Blue missing? Is he okay? Was he kidnapped?” Shiro fired off the questions one after another, only stopping because Keith had held up a piece of paper with a few words on it. “Replaceable? Who gave him that idea?”

Keith dropped his head in shame, “I think it was me,” he said quietly, causing everyone to stare at him in surprise. Keith and Lance had been getting along amazingly the last few weeks – maybe even months – there had been no fights, and they’d been spending more time together. “I was training yesterday, and I hadn’t noticed that he didn’t feel well… He came into the training deck asking if we could hang out, but you know how I get when I train. I get into it, and I don’t want to stop, and then I notice how some of you don’t train as hard as I do – which is difficult anyway – and I snapped at him… I may or may not have said I didn’t know if he could handle being the Blue Paladin.”

There was a moment of silence, before there was a lot of yelling and anger – especially from, well, everyone seemed to be very angry at him for telling Lance that. “I know, I know,” Keith yelled over everyone, “I messed up, but I need to find him. Coran? Can you see if there are any pods missing? Allura, see if Blue is gone as well. Pidge, if either of them pop up as gone, can you try to locate him? Everyone else can search the castle to see if he’s hiding somewhere.”

Allura, Coran, and Pidge nodded in agreement to their assigned tasks, then everyone dispersed and set about the castle to search for the missing Paladin of Voltron. After a half an hour, everyone made their way back to Coran and Allura to see if they had made any progress. They had. One of the pods was missing, but the tracker had been shut down so they couldn’t find the location of said pod yet. Pidge was already working on the problem, of course, so now it was more of a waiting game to see if they could find Lance.


	3. The Chyrrepa

While the team was waiting for Pidge to find Lance’s coordinates, Lance was busy. He knew he couldn’t go back to Earth – of course he couldn’t, that would lead the Galra right to his and everyone else’s family. So instead, he found a planet and landed there to figure out what he was going to do next.

Lance thought for a long time – at least, it felt like it. He thought about what he could do, and was slowly formulating a plan… he could start – a knock on his pod interrupted his train of thought. He looked, his eyes wide and startled – he hadn’t realized that this planet had occupants. He stepped out of the pod, bayard by his side to make sure he had protection if the alien species was hostile. “I apologize for intruding on your home, but I should be able to leave in a few hours,” he said politely, recognizing the stranger as an authority figure.

The native smiled at Lance, “There is no need for that,” his voice resonated inside his mind rather than being spoken. “I am Keivent Chilphank, and you are on Chyrrep,” the voice said into his mind. The Chyrrep had pale blue skin, a human shaped body, though the hands had four fingers rather than five, his face had markings that reminded Lance of vertigo, they were a dark purple and covered his eyes like a mask, and his mouth. His eyes were grey – no pupil, or iris – and seemed to glow softly. The alien had dark hair, and a feline tail that seemed to hold no purpose – though, Lance wouldn’t know. “All are welcome here, as we are a peaceful species, we judge none for what they have done, all is forgiven here.” It was as if the alien knew exactly what Lance was feeling, but the words only made him more distrustful – he had been hypnotized once, he didn’t want to be again. “I understand your distrustfulness,” was the alien in his mind?

“How do you know what I’m thinking?” Lance asked, his guard still up.

“I do not,” Keivent assured, “the Chyrrepa are a very emotional and mind-centered species. We sense emotions from everyone, which makes it impossible for others to lie to us.”

Lance allowed himself to think about it – it makes sense, he reasoned. “Okay…” he said, unsure if he should trust this stranger. What other choice did he have, though?

“Will you come with me? The Queen would like to see you,” Keivent told him, which only made Lance’s guard raise again. The last time he followed a strange alien to their queen, he had ended up hypnotized. “If you’re unsure, I can come back in a varga so you may think on it.”

Lance nodded to the second option, “Please,” he added, to be polite.

It didn’t take a varga to figure out that Lance would go see the Queen – not because he was kidnapped, but because what else could he do while he waited to figure out what to do until the war was over? So, when Keivent returned, Lance agreed to go with him to meet the Queen.

When they approached her, Lance bowed respectfully. “You may rise,” he heard the Queen murmur through his thoughts, so he did. “What is your name, traveler?”

“Lance, ma’am,” his voice was abrupt when he spoke, the silence around them wasn’t unpleasant, but his voice sliced through it like a knife through butter. How the Chyrrepa communicated was strange – not through voice, but through the mind. He remembered not being able to get used to it for many weeks.

“I am Queen Elexaba,” the Queen spoke, “You may call me Elexaba,” she gestured to a male to her right, “This is my partner, the Prince, Hezrin,” the way she introduced her husband, it reminded Lance of the English royal families – there was always a Queen, but not always a King. There was only a King if the King was the royal one, and the Queen was married into the family. If a Queen was the royal one, her partner would be referred to as ‘Prince.’

“Pleasure to meet you,” Lance said, bowing to her and her husband. “I apologize for coming unannounced, I can be gone whenever you’d like,” he offered, not wanting to impose on the planet.

The Queen smiled kindly at the boy at her feet, “Do not worry, Lance,” her voice echoed through his mind, “You are not a bother.”

And thus, began a great friendship between the ex-Blue Paladin of Voltron and the Chyrrepa. Lance stayed on Chyrrep for many reasons – he learned about their culture, he was slowly learning how to communicate with them via his mind, and it seemed that their ability to sense everyone’s aura, as Lance decided to call it, was rubbing off on him? Kind of… He had been with the Chyrrep for roughly a week and a half when he noticed it, a sort of fog around the Chyrrepa bodies, changing colors and shapes depending on their moods. Lance didn’t feel the need to lie to them, and they didn’t see the need to lie to him.

Lance was there for a few days, becoming closer and closer to them until he began feeling guilt eat away at him for not telling them that he was once the Blue Paladin. He decided to tell Keivent first, being the closest to him than the others he had met – Javehn and Jroeni, twins, and then Gizmak.

“Keiv?” Lance asked, turning to his new friend. The alien turned and smiled at the human boy. He could see that whatever Lance was about to say was going to be important – he was practicing talking to them via his mind hard, and because he was speaking, Keivent could only assume that this was important. He could see a greyish green haze around him – guilt and worry, and hoped that Lance was going to tell him whatever was on his chest.

“Yes, Lance?”

“I need to tell you something,” Lance said, fidgeting nervously in his spot on the grass next to Keivent. They had decided to go out and stargaze because Lance wanted Keivent to teach him of the different constellations that their night sky had – which in and of itself was odd. Instead of a dark bluish black, the sky was a dark purple with hints of pink and red. He brought himself back to the moment, remembering that he was about to tell Keivent something. “I used to be the Blue Paladin.”

Keivent smiled at the Earthling, “I know,” he said, surprising Lance once again. His voice, err, thoughts, had gone softer, though. “I recognize the pod as one from the Castle of Lions. It is required of our younglings to learn of the Paladins of Voltron – we find out even if we are in a remote part of the galaxy. The Paladins of Voltron are very important to every free person. May I ask why you say ‘used’ to be?”

Lance swallowed thickly, and turned his gaze to the twinkling stars above them. “I thought I was doing great – I used to slack off a lot, but my friend Keith reminded me of all the reasons I had doubts when we first began this journey to save the universe. Then I wanted to get better, and I thought I was doing better, but he shot me down, hit me in all of my doubts – he used to help me through them, but he had been stressed, so I know that it was just stress, but he’s right,” Lance was getting hysterical, his breathing began to get labored as he remembered the confrontation, but he pushed on, wanting to get it all out there before he regretted opening up to this near-stranger. “He said he didn’t know if I was cut out to be a Paladin of Voltron, and I know he’s right because honestly, I’m just a kid from Earth that wants to go home, but now I can’t, and I don’t want to because I still want to help, but the only way I know how is through Voltron,” in the pause he took to take a breath, Keivent cut in.

“Slow down, Lance,” Keivent’s voice hushed through his mind, trying to calm him with a soothing voice. “Whatever he told you wasn’t true, no matter what you may think,” the haze around Lance was a mess of colors – purple, blue, yellow, green – colors that even alone would be concerning. “What if you created your own resistance force? I’m sure there are those out there who want to fight, but cannot because their species lacks the technology, or the willpower. Find them, and form your own resistance.”

Lance took deep breaths while listening to Keivent speak – he had been thinking about it, honestly. It would be better than doing nothing, and then he could choose how he fought – probably still with his bayard… but at least not be torn down for messing up because he would be in charge. He looked at Keivent, “That, actually, sounds like a great idea…” he said, this time without speaking. Once he was calm, Keivent noticed the haze shift to its usual grey-blue.

“Then, why don’t you do it?”

“I will. Thank you, Keiv.”


	4. The Voiceless

While Lance was missing, a new rebel group had started becoming known. At first, Allura had doubts, what skills could they have against Galra? Though, she admitted, Blade of Marmora was a very good example of a rebel group that was holding their own against the Galra - with many spies and other such intel. They were rumored to be called ‘The Voiceless’, though no one knew if it was because no one had ever heard them speak, or if they stood up for those that had no voice in the war.

Pidge wasn’t able to get the coordinates - or well, she was, but when they went to the coordinates, the pod was empty and just coasting through space. They took the pod on board, and attempted to go through it to see if there was any sign of where Lance had gone.

It was a few days later that Allura officially declared Lance missing and/or dead. This, of course, caused Keith to feel even worse about himself, but he knew that Lance would want him to keep going. To keep fighting the Galra, even if Lance wasn’t there with him. So that’s what he dedicated himself to do.

Allura took over as the Blue Paladin, she was the only one that Blue would open to. It took awhile, but eventually they were back to something they could call ‘normal.’

Meanwhile, Lance was the leader of The Voiceless, called as such because of both of the rumored reasons. Lance was proud of what he had done. He had gone from the Blue Paladin of Voltron, to Loxra of The Voiceless. Because he didn’t want the others to find him, he had changed his name to a native name on Chyrrep. Loxra meant ‘reborn warrior,’ so Lance thought it made sense.

Keivent was proud of his friend, though to make sure that Lance didn’t forget where he came from, he called the boy ‘Lance’ whenever they were alone. He knew Lance appreciated it, but he couldn’t tell if Lance was hurt at the same time.

"Lance," Keivent thought to the rebel leader, "we have a message from your past teammates."

Lance turned to Keivent, knowing that his aura was changing from a calm grey, to a fuzzy reddish brown, signifying his hesitance. The thoughts brought him back to when he first learned how to communicate through thoughts rather than through words. The Chyrrepa couldn’t read minds, but they could project their thoughts upon other beings. It was great when you needed to be quiet. Keivent cleared his throat, bringing Lance back to the present. "What does it say?"

Keivent held up a tablet that projected the image of Allura and Shiro. Allura was in pink Paladin armor, and in that instant, Lance knew that she had taken his place. “Hello, Voiceless. I would like to set a time and place to meet and discuss an alliance. Another rebel group to help against the Galra would be an amazing opportunity for both of us. Please consider our offer. If you accept, we would like to meet in the Progal Quadrant in six varga.”

Lance blinked back tears as he saw his old teammates. He took a deep breath, leaning into Keivent’s touch as he laid a hand on his shoulder. Keivent’s aura was a dark blue - comfort and mutual hurt. "Please set course to the Progal Quadrant, Kei."

Keivent nodded, squeezed his shoulder, and then left to do so.

Lance moved through the battleship, leaving the captain’s room to tell the rest of his crew where they were going. He took a deep breath, and walked into the room where he knew most of the crew would be gathered. Immediately upon his arrival, many turned their attention to Loxran.

"Keivent is setting course to the Progal Quadrant, where we will be meeting with Team Voltron to make an alliance," Lance announced, making sure his aura was calm and soothing. "Many of you know that I was once the Blue Paladin, but I have moved past that. I am glad to call many of you my friends, and all of you my crew."

Many cheered outwardly and through the shared thoughts, giving Lance all the confidence he needed to face his old teammates.


	5. Alliance

The time approached for the meeting to arrive far too quickly. Lance knew it was coming, but it was something he wasn’t looking forward to. He looked into the mirror, pulling the hood of the cloak up to hide most of his face. He reminded himself of Haggar, but his cloak was a light gray, almost white material with red detailing about an inch from the edges of the cloth, and on the seams. It didn’t look ominous at all, so he hoped. Under the cloak he was wearing an ivory colored t-shirt that had their symbol on it, which was black and gold. Keivent walked up behind him, his eyes staring at him intently. “Are you alright?” His voice spoke into his head, causing Lance to look up at his second in command.

Lance turned to face his friend, “I mean,” his voice was loud in the otherwise silent room. “You can see what I’m feeling, so you already know the answer to that question.” If someone else were to look at him, they would see a muddy greyish blue color, mixed with hints of red and black. He was stressed, full of regret, and he wanted to die. But only because he was stressed. 

“I know, but I want you to tell me what’s wrong.” 

“I’m worried about this meeting, Kei,” Lance told the blue alien quietly, but telling him was easy. “I don’t want to see them again, but I know I need to if this is going to do anything in the war,” he sighed, and opened his arms for a hug from Keivent. Keivent, knowing what Lance meant, stepped into his arms and hugged him tightly. Hugging on Chyrrep meant a different thing than it did on Earth - on Chyrrep it meant that they were lovers, it was an intimate thing. Keivent never told Lance this, knowing that on Earth it was a form of comfort. 

“Lance,” Keivent’s voice sounded in the room, his breath fanned over Lance’s neck, causing the hairs there to stand. “Loxra, you will do wonderful things. You have everything in this meeting planned - you’ve gone over it a million times, if not more.” He reassured his friend softly, using his voice. “You know the moment they find out who you are, you know the moment we return. You will be fine.”

Lance nodded, pulling away from him. He turned back to the mirror for a few moments, looking over himself. He was surprised about how far he’d come since leaving Voltron what seemed like years ago, but was likely only a few months at most. He was the leader of his own resistance group, of his own nation, it felt like. It was nice. He was more mature now, more responsible. “Let’s do this,” Lance spoke into Keivent’s mind. The alien smiled at Lance and gestured for him to go first. It was time. 

\---

Lance pulled the hood on the cloak up once more, hiding his face from the view of his old team. They were flying in the Red Lion, and the Blue Lion. Upon seeing Blue, Lance’s heart ached to fly with her again. The one thing he missed, not the one thing, but the most important thing, was Blue. He missed her constant presence in his mind, the soft rumble of her purrs as he was talking with her. He swallowed thickly, “I don’t know if I can do this,” he spoke to Keivent through their minds. “That’s my Blue, and someone else is piloting her.”

“It’s okay, Lance. You are strong. You will make it.” Keivent reassured The Voiceless leader. 

The Lions landed in all their glory. Immediately Blue recognized her Paladin, but didn’t say anything to the others. Her eyes were trained on the cloaked figure, Lance could feel it, but didn’t acknowledge it. He wouldn’t until his hood came off. 

“I am Princess Allura, the Blue Paladin temporarily, this is Keith, the Red Paladin, Shiro, the Black Paladin, Pidge, the Green Paladin, and Hunk, our Yellow Paladin,” Allura introduced the Paladins of Voltron, but it felt wrong to introduce herself as the Blue Paladin. It always did, so she included ‘temporarily’ because she, although saying Lance was missing/dead, didn’t feel like the proper Blue Paladin. 

“I am Loxra, the leader of The Voiceless,” Lance spoke into their minds. He wasn’t worried about them recognizing his voice, because he noticed when Keivent spoke aloud he sounded different than when they communicated mentally. “This is Keivent, my second in command,” he gestured vaguely to where the mentioned was standing, “and this is Yujok, my guard.” 

The Paladins visibly tensed when his voice entered their minds, but Lance only smiled. His head was bowed, but he knew his mouth was visible to outsiders. That means that they would be able to see some skin, where it was obvious it did not match the blue of Keivent, and the pasty green of Yujok, who was from the planet Akra’ag, one of the planets that he had helped save. Allura was the first to snap out of it, and spoke again. “Why are you cloaked? Do you not trust us?” She asked, her guard immediately up. This caused the others to tense up, and raise their bayards slightly. 

“It isn’t that,” Lance assured, “at the end of this meeting I will reveal who I am, but until then, you must trust I won’t do anything as I trust you won’t do anything.”

\---

Allura didn’t trust this. Not one bit. The moment they landed, Blue had been eerily silent. Allura didn’t trust her Lion’s silence. Though, perhaps it meant that they had found another Blue Paladin. She looked over Loxra, and narrowed her gaze again. No, she didn’t trust him. The way they communicated was through the mind, but did that mean they could read minds? She relaxed her gaze, turning her attention to Shiro as he began to speak.

“I respect your decision,” Shiro’s voice cut through the wary silence, and taking the Black Paladin’s lead, the others relaxed. Except for Allura. Shiro looked at the hooded figure, “May I ask some questions?” He asked, stepping in front of Allura before she could protest. 

“You may,” Loxra permitted. 

“How have you been able to make progress against the Galra Armies?” Shiro asked immediately.

“We too, have spies amongst them,” Loxra responded, which wasn’t a lie. Lance had found a few scattered Galra in their adventures that didn’t want to be apart of the Blade, but also didn’t want to support Zarkon and now Lotor. 

Pidge spoke next, “You do? How? Where did you find them? Are they apart of the Blade?” 

Pidge noticed that Loxra had smiled, and was put off by it. What did it mean? “No, we found a few rogue Galra scattered about and hired them. They didn’t want to be apart of the Blade, yet didn’t want to support Zarkon, and now Lotor,” Lance explained into their minds.

Hunk fidgeted nervously as he spoke up, “How can you do that? Did you like, sneak something into our brains? Can you read our minds now? What am I thinking?” 

“Chyrreppa are a very emotional based species,” Loxra explained, glancing to Keivent to take over explaining.

Keivent bowed slightly, and began speaking through their minds. “Yes, we are very emotionally based. We cannot read minds, though we can communicate via thoughts. We can also see the aura’s, as Loxra has called them, of every living, conscious thing. Through this we can sense a variety of emotions, and can even guess an accurate thought that you may have been thinking. Because of this, it is very hard to lie to Chyrreppa. Which is how we are allowed spies inside of Galra ranks.” He spoke gently through their minds. 

Hunk seemed satisfied with the answer, but Keith wanted to ask a question too. It just burst from his mouth before he could stop it. “Have you seen our Blue Paladin? Lance?” He asked, his voice tinted with desperation. He looked between the three strangers, noticing how the one in the white cloak - Loxra - tensed at the mention of the Blue Paladin. He knew something, had to. Just as he was about to explode and demand answers, the leader of The Voiceless spoke into their minds.

“I know of his location, yes.” Lance admitted, not even bothering to hide the fact that he did know where he was. “Again, after this meeting ends successfully, I will reveal the information you seek. I do believe it is our turn to ask questions?” He asked, but continued on before anyone could react - especially Keith, knowing that the Red Paladin had a short temper. He winced at the memory, and his two companions reached out to him comfortingly, resting their hands on his shoulders. “I am curious,” he turned his attention to Allura. “You say temporary Blue Paladin. Have you been searching for a replacement?”

Allura hesitated, “...Kind of,” she admitted, looking away from the stares of the other Paladins. “We have been searching for Lance, and as such I am holding his place. We have almost come to terms that he may be… dead, so we have been looking, but not actively. I am doing well as the Blue Paladin, there is no need to change this.”

Lance felt tears fill his eyes. They had been looking for him. He felt Keivent squeeze his shoulder. “I understand,” he spoke into their minds. He suddenly couldn’t remember the other questions that he had needed to ask, but Keivent continued for him.

“How many allies have you acquired?”

“So far we have the entirety of the Troxa Quadrant, Juar’en Cluster, Kro’ak System, and twelve other Systems that the Kro’ak were allies with, seven Clusters that the Juar’en were allies with, and many small rebel groups, though none are as successful as you are,” Shiro informed Loxra, attempting to praise him so he would warm up to becoming allies with Voltron.

Little did Shiro know, the rebel leader was already planning on becoming allies with Voltron. 

“Very good,” Lance replied, attempting to think of the other question. There had been one more important one. Oh yes, “Are you able to form Voltron?”

“Yes, at first it was difficult,” Allura told Loxra, looking between the three aliens, “as the dynamic of the team had shifted because of our missing Blue Paladin,” she smiled sadly, looking to Keith who had almost completely shut down. He stood behind everyone else, thinking on what Loxra had said. He hoped they would be able to find out where Lance was and bring him home. “But yes, now we are able to form Voltron, though it doesn’t feel the same, I presume,” this earned various reactions from the Paladins, though all of them seemed to agree that it was different. 

Lance looked between the Paladins, his eyes lingering on Keith. He was glad that his cloak hid his face, but he knew it was nearing time to reveal himself. “The Voiceless will join the Alliance,” he told Voltron, they all cheered, clearly relieved. Pidge was suspicious of the fact that they needn’t convince them that they were a good ally to have. A few questions, and then they agreed. She shook it off, wanting to celebrate a new Alliance.

Shiro walked forward to shake Loxra’s hand, “We appreciate your willingness to join us,” he said softly, smiling at the hooded figure.

Lance’s lips curled up, “Of course.”

Keith broke the moment, “Alright, now please tell us where Lance is," he snapped impatiently.

Lance startled at the sudden voice. He straightened his back, though his head stayed bowed. “Of course, how foolish of me. I will give you the information that you seek,” Lance spoke into their minds. He felt Keivent’s hand fall to his back, allowing the leader to pull his hood down while still providing comfort. Yujok let go of him completely, moving back to stand silently in the shadows. Lance reached up, pulling down the hood from his head, and looked up at his old team.


End file.
